Theme Overview
Introduction The year is 800, just after the first Vikings land in England, Northumbria to be exact, and sack the priory at Lindisfarne. It has been a couple of years and English priests, soldiers and common folk have been transplanted back to Norway to be sold as slaves. Norway is still primarily dominated by the viking nations but the english are beginning to find a place here too. Being a slave can be a very rewarding experience if you end up with the right Viking. Other times it can be an awful experience. As well the Christian Religion makes no sense to the locals and their own religion. The biggest difference is the fact that their religion has Living Gods. More on this later on. General Life The Viking is a very intelligent warrior, born and taught to fight, read, write and speak. Despite the general stereotypes surrounding Vikings, they were expert Navigators and intelligent warriors. The Viking's every day life is a life built around their religion, in particular, the nine noble virtues. Additionally, all men were always ready at anytime to die in battle. And Vikings were always acutely aware of their surroundings and their actions, Morality being a very important topic for them. Most Vikings spent their days trying to impress the gods, because it's said that only those who die a death worth dying will be visited by the Valkyrie's and brought to Valhalla, Home of the Gods in Asgard, to act as Einherjar and prepare for the battle of Ragnarok. More on those terms later. Structure Vikings were organized into tribes which were lead by an Earl. The term in the scandinavian language is Jarl. Every spring they would raid in a direction as determined by the Earl. The Earl would pick the person responsible for the raid and they became the leader for that raid. All treasure was brought back to the Earl and a portion of it was split evenly amongst the raid members. Warfare Contrary to popular belief, Vikings didn't just use those shields on their ships for decoration. The Vikings were very intelligent raiders and warriors, using tactics that we would later call Guerilla Warfare. Even in 800, they were a force to be reckoned with. In combat, the vikings always went after targets that were hard for the enemy to protect and reinforce. Churches were their favorite places to raid because there were no weapons and a church was full of jewels, gold and silver. Additionaly, they used church against the christians, raiding on sundays. The shields on the sides of the ships were used for two reasons: First, on the ship they could protect rowers and other crew members partially. Secondly, the vikings used shield tactics like the Spartans did. They used shield walls and the shield buddy system. Religion I'm not interested in a super long description of the Norse Religion. Essentially, in a nutshell, Odin laid out 9 noble virutes and all norsemen seek to live their life according to those virtues. The gods judge each person individually against these virtues so that at death the gods might choose the noble souls who will be risen to Valhalla by the Valkyries to become Einherjar. Lots of terms. Valhalla - A large hall owned by Odin and given to the noble souls that are risen from death by the valkyrie and chosen to fight in Ragnarok. Valkyrie - The guardians of the dead. Warrior women that took the noble souls to Valkyrie for Odin. Einherjar - Specifically, the name for a person chosen to fight in Ragnarok. For a quick overview, the Nine Noble Virtues can be loosely defined as. #Courage #Truth #Honour #Fidelity #Discipline #Hospitality #Self Reliance #Industriousness #Perseverance Extra Notes: The name for their pantheon is Aesir and Vanir. The Aesir are the male gods, the Vanir are the Female gods. Women Women in the culture is bound to be a question that comes up. Believe it or not Women were treated rather equally in the Norse Culture. They could be fighters called Shield Maiden's. They could be house wives. They could even own land. The point I'm trying to get across is no, the norse culture is not primarily patriarchal. While women could not decide the place of a raid or comment on it, unmarried women could go. Married women stayed behind to handle the family affairs.